1. Field of Invention
This invention is a bicycle carrier, specifically a carrier that mounts on the rear of vehicles.
2. Background of Prior Art
Racks and carriers mounted to the exterior of vehicles have long been used for the transport of bicycles. These racks were mounted to either the roof, the bumper or the rear trunk lid. Most of these relied were designed to be fabricated out of tubular metal and attached with either a series of straps or with a hitch ball mounting bolt. These racks were generally complicated, non-lockable, unstable and were limited in capacity, in most cases to two to three bicycles.
It is known that there presently is a bicycle rack that mounts to the hitch ball mount on a bumper and carries up to four bicycles using a bent metal tube as the carrying arm that contains a series of bicycle brackets. The bicycles are held in place by rubber straps. This design is inherently weak because of the lateral forces that are placed on these straps when the vehicle travels especially in off-road situations. In order to secure the bicycles from lateral movement a number of rubber brackets are available. In order to provide lateral stability an alternate design exists, a plate that holds down the top tubes of the bicycles into the brackets. In order to account for a variation in the top tube thickness two large screws are used.
Due to the inherent limitations of the bumpers designed in newer vehicles, the capacity of bumper mounted racks is limited. It is known that there is a bicycle rack that does insert into a trailer hitch receiver. This rack, however, relies on a carrier arm design that is not lockable. Because there is such a variety in tubing thickness in newly designed bicycles the current manufactures have not approached the design of bicycle racks by designing a standard lockable framework. This has limited the possible design solutions.
The following pre-existing patents were researched:
______________________________________ 4,089,448 5/1978 Traeger 224/42.03 B Bicycle/Ski Rack, bumper mounted 4,290,540 9/1981 Allen 224/321 X Foldable Bicycle Carrier, trunk mounted 4,332,337 6/1982 Kosecoff 224/321 X Foldable Bicycle Carrier, trunk mounted 4,394,948 7/1983 Graber 224/42.03 R Bicycle Carrier, trunk mounted 4,452,385 6/1984 Prosen 224/42.03 B Bicycle Carrier, trunk mounted 4,676,414 6/1987 Deguevara 224/42.03 B Article Carrier, hitch mounted 4,856,686 8/1989 Workentine 224/42.03 B Cargo Carrier, hitch mounted 4,971,237 11/1990 Davis 224/42.07 Tire Holder, frame mounted 4,997,116 3/1991 Grim 224/329 X Rear Mounting Carrier, trunk mounted 5,096,102 3/1992 Tolson 224/917 Article Carrier, hitch mounted 5,305,936 4/1994 Nusbaum 224/42.03 B Bicycle/Ski Carrier, trunk mounted ______________________________________
Most of the existing patents address trunk mounted devices that secure themselves with a series of straps. Those devices that are hitch mounted have structural limitations.
Although their have been numerous attempts to solve the problems associated with providing a strong, high capacity, lockable rack the heretofore known designs suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages:
a. They have limited capacity based on their mounting point. PA1 b. They have limited capacity due to their lack of flexibility in handling a variety of tubing thicknesses. PA1 c. They rely on rubber mounting straps to secure them which allows lateral movement. PA1 d. They are non-lockable. PA1 a. A structural design that relies on the capacity of several elements acting together which create a strength that exceeds the sum of their parts. PA1 b. A simple design that relies on an attachment point that has the capacity to do the job and not damage the vehicle. PA1 c. Adjustable carrier brackets that will hold a variety of tubing sizes securely. PA1 d. A structure that is lockable. PA1 e. Capacity up to six bicycles. PA1 f. Ease in placement of rack in hitch and ease in placement of bicycles on rack.